Federal Laws Were Already in Place to Prevent Texas Shooter from Buying Firearms. Who Dropped the Ball?

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Federal Laws Were Already in Place to Prevent Texas Shooter from Buying Firearms. Who Dropped the Ball?

By
Johnson Law Group
|November 15, 2017

FEDERAL LAWS WERE ALREADY IN PLACE TO PREVENT TEXAS SHOOTER FROM BUYING
FIREARMS. WHO DROPPED THE BALL?

Posted on Nov 15, 2017 9:05am PST

With shootings at the forefront of our never-ending news cycle, there are
any number of voices crying out for more laws to govern gun ownership.
All of these laws are well-intended, and designed to protect people from
shootings. Sadly, these laws rarely work the way in which they are intended,
and do not wind up protecting the public the way they were intended to
do so. This article will discuss the most recent shooting, and several
nuances in gun control laws.

Our most recent tragic shooting was that in Sutherland Springs, Texas,
when Devin Patrick Kelley shot and killed 26 people after he shot at a
church using a rifle. There are already laws in effect that would have
barred Kelley from obtaining a firearm and firearm ammunition, but those
laws did nothing to prevent the tragic slaying of those 26 people.

Kelley was subject to a federal firearms prohibition, and had been for
years. A firearms prohibition is a creature of statute that prohibits
certain individuals from possessing a firearm or firearm ammunition. Federal
law imposing a firearms prohibition on Kelley were already in force, and
did little to save the people of the First Baptist Church.

Federal law already prohibits someone from possessing a gun when he or
she has been convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor crime of domestic
violence. Crimes of "domestic violence" can be anything involving
domestic violence, and the law does not distinguish between titles of
offenses. In other words, a person could have a Domestic Battery offense
in the State of Illinois amended to being a Disorderly Conduct, a crime
that does not intrinsically involve domestic violence. However, under
federal law, if a family or household member were involved and some force,
however slight, were used, then it would be considered a crime of "domestic
violence" for purposes of imposing a federal firearms prohibition.

Years before the tragic shooting in Texas, Kelley had been convicted of
a crime involving domestic violence against his wife at the time as well
as his child. As a result of this incident, he would be court martialed,
and, despite his apparent lack of prior history, was incarcerated for
12 whole months, the maximum a person could be incarcerated for a misdemeanor
offense. He was then released in 2014, and was given a bad conduct discharge
from the United States Air Force. (The difference between a bad conduct
discharge and a dishonorable discharge is that bad conduct discharge can
follow misdemeanor offenses, while dishonorable discharges can follow
felony offenses.)

At the time of his release in 2014, he was subject to a federal firearms
prohibition. Nothing about federal firearms prohibitions has changed since
then, at least as far as Kelley is concerned. This prohibition should
have served to prevent him from acquiring any firearms. However, in the
years that followed, he acquired 4 firearms, and can even be seen posing
in Facebook posts with a firearm.

Those who do not understand firearms laws and would blame the individual
states in which Kelley obtained his firearms for the breakdown would be
wrong. It was the United States Air Force that failed to report Kelley's
conviction.

Another federal law would have been in place to prevent Kelley from obtaining
firearms, and it requires that a background check be performed. A person
purchasing a firearm is still mandated to complete this check prior to
purchasing. However, there too firearms laws did not work. Kelley successfully
passed a check performed by the National Instant Criminal Background Check
Service (or "NICS"), which is run by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(or "FBI") without issue whatsoever.

Federal firearms laws did not stop what happened in Texas. Imposing additional
laws further restricting firearms possession would not have stopped what
happened in Texas either. A gun registry listing people who have guns
would not have stopped what happened in Texas, and neither would have
a longer waiting period before someone could obtain a gun. The voices
crying out for a change to the law or additional gun control laws in general
are all well-intended. However, these voices fail to realize that just
because something is legislated does not mean that it will accomplish
more than making us
feel good, and they fail to realize that more laws restricting everyone's
rights does not mean that the system will operate the way they intended.

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